VMWorld 2017 – Pivotal Container Service (PKS) is this Game Changer?

VMware and Pivotal in collaboration with Google Cloud, unveiled Pivotal Container Service (PKS), a new product that enables enterprises and service providers to deliver production-ready Kubernetes on VMware vSphere and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), with constant compatibility to Google Container Engine (GKE). The new offering is expected to become available in calendar Q4 2017, and ship as a standalone product able to integrate with Pivotal Cloud Foundry (PCF) and VMware’s software-defined data center (SDDC) infrastructure.

Kubernetes is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications and it has become the de facto standard for container orchestration. The Kubernetes framework provides a number of key application layer capabilities such as application orchestration, scaling, health monitoring and healing. Importantly, comprehensive access to Kubernetes’ functionality is provided neatly via a clear, consistent REST API. While Kubernetes is at the center of the cloud-native ecosystem, many challenges (listed below) still remain in building and operationalizing a robust, reliable, enterprise-grade container service in production

While Linux containers are not new, open source container projects are still evolving and gaining maturity

Container frameworks are lacking some key capabilities when it comes to areas such as security, multi-tenancy, identity and access management

While Kubernetes provides useful tools at the application layer, tools to reliably deploy, maintain, monitor and scale the underlying infrastructure are lagging

There’s a shortage of the talent required to implement the DIY approaches that open source technologies often dictate

Lastly, end to end, full-stack support from trusted partners is difficult to come by

Constant compatibility with Google Container Engine (GKE) and integration with Google Compute Platform services through the integrated Open Service Broker (OSB)

Production-grade features such as high availability, security, identity and access management, monitoring and logging at both the infrastructure and application layer

VMware PKS is built on BOSH for simplified deployment, scaling and self-healing capabilities; NSX-T for best-in-class networking and security; and integrates seamlessly with existing VMware tooling such as vRealize Suite and Wavefront by VMware. VMware PKS is the commercial release of the open source project Kubo (Kubernetes on Bosh) created by Pivotal and Google to address the needs of customers wanting to deploy Kubernetes on premises. Kubo was launched by Pivotal & Google in Feb 2017 and donated to Cloud Foundry Foundation in June 2017. It combines the container scheduling and orchestration capabilities of Kubernetes with the cluster management, release engineering and automation capabilities of BOSH. BOSH is open-source software designed to provision and manage large distributed systems. It is an intelligent cluster management tool, with integrated health management and logging, all sprinkled with expert opinions so that PKS just works. BOSH has powered Pivotal Cloud Foundry for years, and helps administrators create consistent environments that are self-healing and updated with zero downtime. This is a critical component that enables VMware PKS to maintain constant compatibility with Google Container Engine (GKE) through regular and timely updates of the fast-moving Kubernetes mainline releases.

VMware NSX is focused on emerging application frameworks and architectures that have heterogeneous endpoints and technology stacks. In addition to vSphere hypervisors, these environments may also include other hypervisors, containers, bare metal, and public clouds. NSX is designed for management, operations, and consumption by development organizations – in addition to IT. VMware PKS will include a jointly developed and maintained implementation of Open Services Broker API and will be continuously compatible with GKE. This will make it easy for PKS users to incorporate innovative GCP services like BigQuery, Spanner, and Machine Learning in their applications, and will provide fast and easy application portability between PKS and GKE. For management and operations, VMware PKS will offer seamless integration with the entire suite of VMware vRealize products including vRealize Automation, vRealize Operations and vRealize Log Insight. vRealize Suite is an enterprise-ready, cloud management platform that delivers the industry’s most complete solution for managing heterogeneous, hybrid cloud environments. VMware PKS will also integrate with Wavefront by VMware and vRealize Network Insight (vRNI). vRNI helps organizations gain visibility across both virtual and physical networks and enable micro-segmentation planning and deployment. Wavefront by VMware provides operational insights that help optimize modern day applications using millions of real-time data points per second.

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